Tower Construction Costs $700K for Caladesi Friends

Friends of the Island Parks officials said building an observation and interpretive facility on Caladesi Island is more complex and costly because of its location.

Cindy Farris is excited about plans to bring a 25-foot observation deck to Caladesi Island. Farris, president of Friends of the Island Parks, told Dunedin city leaders May 16 that the group is close to naming a contractor for the project and fundraising efforts are going strong. The proposed $700,000 Caladesi Discovery Center would provide a panoramic view and include hands-on exhibits in a planned interpretive facility on the popular barrier island. An additional $150,000 would be for educational exhibits. The expense of the project is due, in part, to the high cost of transporting materials and equipment to the remote project site, Farris said. "It's not easy to build on the barrier island," she said. The group's first major fundraising …

•  4 Comments
• Photos (1)

Triplets! Osprey Cam Shows 1, 2, 3 Hungry Chicks

A pair of ospreys have hatched three chicks, as web cam followers enjoy a bird's eye view of the momentous event.

Energy-Efficient Lights Save Downtown Merchant Thousands

Switching over to LED lighting more than paid off for downtown Dunedin merchant Lee Mullen, owner of Lasting Impressions Engraving and Gifts.

Lee Mullen likes to keep a copy of his shop's February 2010 Progress Energy bill handy. It's most powerful to see how much the electric bill drops after replacing all the lights in his downtown store with LED bulbs, Mullen said. The numbers don't lie.  "You can talk all you want, but when you actually see proof," said Mullen, owner of Lasting Impressions Engraving and Gifts, as he walked over to retrieve his old bill. The City of Dunedin recently recognized Mullen's efforts with its 2012 Environmental Advocate Award during an April 18 commission meeting.  Mullen invested about $4,800 and three months of tweaking to install all of the energy-efficient lighting inside his 1,200-square-foot Main Street storefront (but technology has come a …

• Photos (6)

Caladesi Island Tower to Feature Panoramic View, Hands-On Education

Park officials are hoping to move forward on plans to build an $600,000 to $700,000 observation deck at Caladesi Island State Park.

Designs for a 25-foot education and observation tower on Caladesi Island are complete. And state officials already approved them. Now it's just the matter of funding, Peter Krulder, park manager, says. Friends of the Island Parks is spearheading recent fundraising efforts to build the observation deck, which has a $600,000 to $700,000 price tag, Krulder says. He hopes to have it completed in 2014. Plans for the up-and-coming Caladesi Discovery Center indicate that it would be an open-air, ADA-compliant structure at the site of the old tower, which was torn down in the late 1980s, Krulder says. "It had rusted to a point that it was no longer safe for park visitors to climb," Krulder explains. The new tower would provide a panoramic view and…

•  2 Comments
• Photos (1)

Dry Cleaning Goes Green at Causeway Cleaners

Causeway Cleaners in Dunedin specializes in giving the whole dry cleaning package in a environmentally safe way.

Causeway Cleaners offers dry cleaning, alteration, laundry and alteration and they do it all in a way that's safe for the environment. Steve Milby, owner of Causeway Cleaners switched over to the green system of cleaning a few years back. "I just wish I had done it a lot sooner," Milby said. In addition to the green processes, Causeway Cleaners tries to be the "Mom and Pop" dry cleaning location of Dunedin, Milby said. To learn more about the process at Causeway Cleaners, watch the video above. Related Coverage: Sign up for the free Dunedin Patch email newsletter to stay connected to your community.

•  1 Comment
• Videos (1)

Dredging: Who Should Pay $2.4 Million for Cedar Creek, Lake Sperry?

Sand buildup in Cedar Creek and Lake Sperry may become a big stormwater drainage issue if it is not dealt with, says an engineer hired by the city.

A sand buildup is scientifically proven to be an increasing problem for some Dunedin residents. And it may be the source of a political back-and-forth over whether taxpayers should foot an estimated $2.4 million dredging bill to get rid of it. More than 15 years worth of sand and silt is filling Lake Sperry, a private neighborhood pond, and Cedar Creek, which abuts several residential yards, preventing the flow of runoff into St. Joseph Sound. "There are going to be impacts to the system eventually if no maintenance is done out there," Joe Wagner, P.E., of Taylor Engineering, Inc., told Dunedin commissioners during a March 12 public workshop.  "It's going to a condition that's going to, at some point, cause stormwater and drainage problems…

•  8 Comments
• Photos (1)

Osprey Courtship Results in Season's First Egg at Dunedin Nest

Stirling and Pinella, the two osprey caught courting live on the DunedinOspreyCam.org feed along Pinellas Trail, produced their first egg of the 2013 birdwatching season Saturday.

With a hatchling on the way, the Dunedin bird courtship is unfolding on camera like a reality TV show. First, the handsome Stirling appears to treat his lady Pinella to a fresh seafood dinner, probably mullet. She accepts, and they're later caught getting close back at the nest, which has a nice panoramic view of Dunedin Stirling Links and Bayshore Boulevard. All the romance, of course, is captured via a live feed at DunedinOspreyCam, which fan TweetDreams1 later shared on Youtube.  It must have been true love for Stirling because from that point on he started treating Pinella to fresh crab dinners. And now that Pinella has laid the osprey couple's first egg March 16, with one or two more eggs expected within the week the real birdwatching…

• Photos (1)
• Videos (2)

Paddler on Yearlong Journey Thanks Honeymoon Island Park Manager

Expedition Florida 500 adventurer Justin Riney arrived in Dunedin on Monday and spent two nights on Honeymoon Island. Riney had many good things to say about his stay.

Justin Riney's stay in Dunedin was brief. But he was sure to express appreciation for Honeymoon Island's "generosity and hospitality" after his stay as part of a yearlong Expedition Florida 500 journey. "There's no camping permitted on Honeymoon Island, but (Park Manager) Pete wanted me to experience this beautiful place anyway," Riney wrote in a Facebook post that acts as an online journal of his expedition.  His mode of transportation is a stand-up paddle board. He has one paddle and a few water-proof bags in tow. Riney, who is also the founder and CEO of Mother Ocean, a non-profit group dedicated to empowering ocean advocates around the world, spent two nights in Dunedin, days 56 and 57 of his journey. Riney was greeted by 35 …

• Videos (1)

Dunedin Hires Law Firm to Investigate Possible BP Oil Spill Claim

A high-powered, national plaintiff litigation firm told Dunedin commissioners Thursday that he'd have a draft recovery claim against BP ready in about two weeks.

A high-powered, national plaintiff litigation firm told Dunedin commissioners he'd have a draft claim against BP ready for Dunedin in about two weeks. Kevin Dean, a lawyer from South Carolina-based Motley Rice LLC, reassured commissioners who had questions about being past the Jan. 18 deadline to file a claim for recovery costs from the 2010 Deepwater Horizon spill. "It is a little bit of a concern," Dean said. "But I think we'll be OK." He told city officials Feb. 7 that the statute of limitations doesn't technically expire until April 20. Dean said no case law on the technicalities surrounding a 90-day filing period under the Oil Pollution Act of 1990 exists, and he suspects judges would rule in the claimants' favor if it is challenged…

•  3 Comments
• Photos (2)

City Seeks Volunteer Hammock Park Advisory Members

The Hammock Advisory Committee serves to assist in reviewing conditions and makes recommendations to the City Commission regarding issues relative to the park.